The San Antonio Spurs just named WNBA vet Becky Hammon their newest assistant coach.

Awesome news for women everywhere who love basketball: Yesterday, the San Antonio spurs announced that Becky Hammon, a 16-year WNBA player, will be the club's new assistant coach. While other women have done short and/or unpaid coaching stints on NBA teams in the past, Hammon is the first woman to get a full-time gig coaching in the pro league—and since the Spurs are the reigning NBA champs, it creates an example that other teams will hopefully choose to follow in coming years.

"I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff, " Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich said in a press release. "Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic, and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."

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Hammon just retired from the WBNA, where she currently ranks seventh in league history in points (with 5,809), fourth in assists (1,687) and sixth in games (445). Most recently, Hammon played point guard for the San Antonio Stars (she was with them for the last eight years). Last season, after tearing her ACL and being unable to play, she started attending Spurs practices and film sessions, according to ESPN .

Clearly, she made quite the impression on the Spurs. "I think I've always had a little bit of coaching in me just naturally," Hammon said at a press conference yesterday. "I've got to be perfectly honest—it's never been about the woman thing. It's been about, 'Hey, she's got a great basketball mind, and we'd love to have her. We think she'd be a great addition to the program.' So I think that's just the driving force. [Popovich] told me early on, 'As cool as it would be to hire you, you have to be qualified, and I have to make sure you're qualified.' I think that's the best way to go about it."

While Hammon says she's confident she has the experience and skills necessary for the position, she also feels incredibly lucky to have gotten the job: " As great as it is—it is, this opportunity—it's also incredibly humbling at the same time. I'm feeling a lot of emotions, but those would probably just be the two driving forces: just thankful and just humble." Visit NBA.com to watch the full press conference .